UKH

Fellow couch potato newbies.

We’ve never bothered streaming before other than the occasional BBC iPlayer catch up via laptop and Apple TV device. With the lockdown it would be great to access a better and more recent choice of films than provided by the free view channels. We have a reasonable but not ultra fast broadband. One job today is to put in a cable connection between the Apple TV and our router to improve performance.

so what’s the best and best value way to access films? Netflix? Amazon Prime? Apple TV? Subscription or pay per view?

We share a netflix account with 3 friends, is about 4EUR/month/p.p. There are enough decent movies/series/documentaries (using NordVPN I can also access content from other geographical regions).

If you buy anything from amazon, then prime is the way to go. Next day delivery and access to content (films, music and books) with the option to rent and purchase (non transferable) content. I think netflix has a wider range of interests for me. The days of having 4, 5, or 100 channels to consume are over for many. Selectively watch what you want, when you want.

On a related note, just subscribed to disney+. There is lots of content for kids, which might be a blessing for some who are working from home. There are some good deals out there, for example o2 have an offer.

Current advice from providers is to download and watch later due to high demand.

Try MUBI when you’re fed up with mainstream movies. 

Thanks for that, I've fixed the hard wire connection to our Apple TV box and gone for Amazon Prime - very pleased with video quality and choice of films (really enjoyed Fisherman's Friends and Green Book), also TV series like Pickard

Most reports I've seen suggest that British ISPs are largely coping just fine with the extra traffic. The biggest changes have been an increase in home broadband use during the day, from working at home, but those increases have still been nowhere near normal evening peaks.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/03/a-snapshot-of-uk-and-eu-broad...

https://www.zdnet.com/article/coronavirus-how-the-internet-is-coping-with-a...

I think the advice is more that if your individual connection is failing to keep up with multiple people in your home streaming at the same time, downloading some of the streams in advance might help. But that's something you can do if and when you discover your household has a problem, rather than general advice that everybody should be following for the good of the whole network. I don't think it's something Kevin needs to be considering in choosing a streaming platform.

If you have kids I highly recommend the new Disney + streaming service. Jam packed with great movies for kids (and adults) and only £60 for the year. (Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars) Plus it also has loads of National Geographic documentaries. It's going to be a godsend in our house over the next few months...